Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Hermiston City Council to Congress: Change US trade policy

Earlier today, a press release from Public Citizen landed in the LO email box letting us know about an interesting turn of events with the Hermiston City Council:

A snippet:

Hermiston, OR — The Hermiston City Council unanimously passed a “Resolution to Retain Local Jobs” last night, in a vote of 7-0. The resolution calls on Congress to “oppose international trade agreements that facilitate to the offshoring of Oregon jobs” and to replace Fast Track trade promotion authority with “democratic” and “inclusive” trade policymaking procedures. Area residents, many of whom had lost jobs when the Simplot processing plant moved abroad under the North American Free Trade Agreement, testified in support of the resolution at last night’s City Council meeting.

The citizens of that region are obviously very unhappy about the US's current free trade agreements and want to see change happen. So much so that they're willing to put it on record with the US Congress. Greg Walden (R-OR2) is their Congressman and is a willing participant in voting yes for these free trade agreements.

This is a possible opportunity to purple-ize this region of our state. With jobs pouring out of that area and shipped outside the US, these folks are justifably upset. Its an issue that the Oregon left should be capitalizing on.